With pitch-black skies looking like a heavy rain will pour down anytime soon (which eventually did not), I panicked to get a taxi to drive me home fast, and offered my co-teacher a free ride since I will just drop her off near my place.

When I arrived at my house, the taxi meter rate was at P94.00. So, I opened my wallet which had 3 similarly colored bills, handed the driver something that looked like P100.00 (it was kind of dark inside the taxi) , and told him to just keep the change since he drove me home safely anyway.

After around 5-10 minutes, a taxi was blowing annoyingly its horn in front of our gate. Thinking that it was just another mistakenly-dispatched taxi, I went out and asked the driver of what house number he was looking for. But, the taxi's feature quickly sank in my thoughts-- that it was the one I rode home.

The driver started to converse by stating that I handed him a short amount. With a puzzled-looking aura plus the fact that I was too hungry that time, I replied calmly and a little bit sarcastically, "Pagsure nong uy, P100.00 baya jud toh ay..." ("How come?, I was confident I paid you P100.00”). He ironically reiterated that the fare I paid was inadequate, and at the same time surprisingly showed me a P1,000.00 bill, and said that "Mao ning gibayad nimo ganina" ("This was what you gave me a while ago).

"Oh my goooooooodness! Hala, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you kaayo!"

Yes, unknowingly and carelessly, I handed him a P1,000.00 bill. It was one of the most stupid moments of my life. However, I was so blessed that the driver was so sincere to return it to me somehow. I cannot thank the driver much of the honesty he showed me. He is just one of the living proofs that Davao taxi drivers are worth the city’s pride. Thank God for drivers like him!

Salamat jud kaayo manong driver Eric Solarte of SNN Taxi (LXC-703)!

If the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) honored the soldier who was shoved by German national Marc Sueselbeck, fiance of the late Filipino transgender Jennifer Laude who was killed in Olongapo City last month, and if the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) commended Fernando Gonzales, the traffic enforcer who sells bibingka (rice cake) as a sideline job to augment his earnings for his children's tuition instead of resorting to extortion, then this taxi driver deserves to be honored by the government for honesty and for being a role model and a good citizen of this country.